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Friday, October 14, 2016

Maryland Patients Still Waiting On Medical Marijuana

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — While Maryland is on pace to have one of the slowest rollouts of medical marijuana in the country, patients across the state must skirt the law if they want to treat themselves.

It has been more than 900 days since former Gov. Martin O’Malley signed the bill legalizing medical marijuana in the state.

Dispensaries are anticipated to open by next summer, but legal fights with the Natalie M. LaPrade Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission over licenses to grow the plant has many concerned that access will keep patients waiting longer.

I'm almost 70 years old. I was prescribed oxycontin for over five years for a range of painful medical conditions, some related to severe arthritis and others a result of several accidents that left me with three fused vertebrae and and pins in my ankle and wrist; all of them from my work in the military. After five years, my oxycontin and codeine for breakthrough pain was 300 mg daily and four and more tabs daily. I was really a walking zombie, but still in pain.

I hadn't had any marijuana for over 40 years until a friend suggested (and supplied) some to me from his own homegrown.The instant change in my chronic pain was amazing. Within six weeks I had completely weaned off the opioids and opiates and was less painful that I had been in maybe twenty years. This after two to three doses of cannabis in a vaporizer every day. My thinking was clearer, my pain was incredibly reduced and my mobility better than it had been in over ten years. People even remarked how much better I looked. With my increased physical activity I lost thirty pounds and now walk up to five miles a day, every day, something that was out of the question before.It's been almost four years since I kicked the oxycontin and codeine and I'm glad that I did.

I've been patiently waiting for Maryland to get its act together to have legalized medical cannabis available. I know that I'm not the only one, not by a long shot. But at this point, I question why I should pay twenty times what it costs me to grow my own, and why I, personally, should have to be regulated and monitored by the government when it's obvious that what I'm doing is better for me than what was being done to me with the mind and body numbing narcotics prescribed by my M.D. according to law.

I don't understand why the synthetic drug is not adequate. If you have tried the synthetic, why does it not work as well as smoking a joint or eating a "brownie"? Personally, I don't care if adults want to smoke/eat pot, but the kid friendly edibles need to be nixed.

10:20 PM - It's easy to explain. The only chemical compound in the synthetic is THC. Cannabis (the plant) contains not only naturally occurring THC, it has literally hundreds of others, with the most effective for pain, anxiety, insomnia and a plethora of other human complaints being the CBD's and CBG's, two large groups of chemical compounds not contained (at all) in the synthetic THC. Medical marijuana is grown to include measurable levels of CBD's and CBG's, as well as THC. Medical marijuana patients look for specific levels of those chemical groups to align with their needs. One day, pharmaceutical companies will probably figure out the full range of cannabis chemistry, and will find a way to market each bit of it. Part of why they haven't already is the almost total government ban on marijuana research that started in the 1930's.Just to give a personal anecdote, I used Dronabinol (synthetic THC) at varying doses for over a year and a half as part of a test group for those with nerve injury related chronic pain not responsive to other medications. The results were poor. The only thing it did to me is to make me a little high, but the pain was not affected in the least. Starting to use cannabis in its whole form after the study, though, made a world of difference in my pain levels.